The 7 Most Important Announcements Made at Microsoft’s Windows 10 Event

Microsoft was serious when it called yesterday’s Windows 10 event as the unveiling of the ‘next chapter’ for the software giant. The company not only showed that it’s slowly moving away from its past failures but also managed to introduce some wildly futuristic concepts.

We are listing the top 7 announcements from yesterday’s Windows 10 event.

1. Cortana Comes to the desktop

Microsoft’s sassy virtual assistance has become first amongst others to get a desktop support. As rumored earlier, you can find Cortana just next to the task bar on your Windows 10 desktop. Cortana will be able to answer your typed or spoken questions and open documents from your local library or OneDrive. The PC version of Cortana can also take notes and tailor your experience. For example, Cortana is also integrated with a new Maps app which enables her to remind you where you have parked your car or how much time will it take to reach home. Along with this, Cortana will regularly pop-in with the latest updates on flights, football scores, stocks or whatever she understands you like, with course of time.

2. Gamers Delight

This is the announcement that made us exclaim in delight. We have been ranting about the defunct PC gaming network and Games for Windows Live being inadequate. Well, Microsoft changed it with yesterday. The company announced a new Xbox app on every Windows device allowing you to view your games collection and chat with people on Xbox Live. And the bigger news is that with Windows 10, you can stream Xbox One games to any PC or tablet. You’re no longer restricted to the gaming console. Streaming will require a one-time set up to establish a relationship between the devices, after which Xbox One games can be accessed on a Windows 10 device by clicking on the game’s name in the Windows 10 Xbox App.

3. Goodbye Internet Explorer, Hello Spartan!

Spartan has been in the news for sometime now. Microsoft’s new browsing app is a cleaner browser with a lot of shiny new features. There’s a “note-taking mode” that lets you draw over pages with a stylus or add comments with a keyboard, then save the results on OneNote. A clean “reading mode” formats a page like a book and adds a syncable reading list that’s basically “Pocket for Microsoft” or Safari’s page-saving feature. Another added bonus – Spartan has Cortana built into it.

4. Return Of the Start Menu

The new OS update is so radical it prompted Microsoft to skip straight from Windows 8 to 10. One of the biggest iterations in Windows 10 is the return of Start Menu. It not only made its come back with the new upgrade but is also said be better than ever. Windows 10’s Start Menu will now expand to a full-screen view that looks like Windows 8.1’s home screen. A new Android-style Action Center provides quick access to Wi-Fi options, Bluetooth, and other settings. Along with this Microsoft has also added the Continuum feature which is designed specifically for convertible devices, switching almost instantly from a mouse and keyboard to a tablet screen.

5. Giant Display For Enterprise

Surface hub is a giant 84-inch 4K screen meant for the workplace.The 4K display has a built-in camera, speakers, mics, Bluetooth and NFC along with a stylus as a main input device for its touchscreen interface. The new display is the outcome of Microsoft’s acquisition of Perceptive Pixel, a research company it acquired in 2012. The idea is to provide enterprises with a one stop solution for meetings with members – appearing via Skype, drawing on screen and easily sharing work between everyone’s devices.

6. HoloLens

As mentioned above, the company has also announced a wild and futuristic hardware. We were talking about HoloLens. The Microsoft HoloLens is a see-through visor that overlays holographic imagery over the real world. Born as the project codenamed as Project Baraboo, or sometimes just “B”, Hologram is powered by a new processor, what the company called a holographic processing unit. It’s equipped with sensors to detect the real world and gestures of the users, as well as holographic sound. It has no wires and doesn’t need to connect to phones or PCs.

7. Unified Role of OneDrive

With Windows 10, OneDrive will become an important aspect of the unified app system. It will allow documents to sync across devices. Cortana has also been integrated with OneDrive and now can search documents in your cloud storage through your PC. OneDrive will also play a bigger role in photo and music section with Windows 10. For example, music will sync between devices using OneDrive. Up until now, OneDrive was focused on just photo and document sharing.